How to Cope with Your Suicidal Thoughts and Feelings

The ultimate tragedy of mood disorders is suicide. Suicide is a
double disaster. Not only does it prematurely end a life, it wreaks
havoc on the lives of those left behind. Devastated survivors can be
traumatized by feelings of grief, guilt, anger, resentment, and
confusion. "There was no time to say good-bye," and "Perhaps I could
have done more," are examples of comments that are made by shell-shocked
friends and relatives. Moreover, the stigma surrounding suicide makes
it very difficult for family members to talk about what has happened.

By far the major cause of
suicide is untreated depression. According to the National Institute of
Mental Health, 15 percent of those afflicted with a major depressive
disorder and who are not treated (or who fail to respond to treatment)
will end their lives by suicide. (This is 35 times the normal suicide
rate.) People with serious illnesses such as cancer and heart disease do
not kill themselves in large numbers; depressed people do.

Many theories exist that
attempt to explain the motivation for suicide. Freud postulated a death
instinct. Others have suggested that humans are endowed with "a drive to
destruction." But to anyone who has experienced the suicidal pain of
depression, the explanation is so simple, so self-evident, that it
requires neither psychiatric nor psychological jargon. Death is chosen
because suffering is so acute, so agonizing, so intolerable, that there
comes a time-depending on the individual's tolerance for pain and the
available support-that ceasing to suffer becomes the most important
thing.Read more...